Colour is everything, Black and White is more ( II )

Black and White Alucobond®

According to Alvar Aalto, “God created paper for the purpose of drawing architecture on it.” A black and white sketch can communicate complex information in a few lines. Zaha Hadid used calligraphic sketches to visualise her architectural ideas. Drawing was a means of exploring ideas of abstraction and fragmentation, an investigative process examining architecture’s relationship with the world in which we live.

WIDE WHITE SCULPTURE

Project: Campus Evergreen Eole, Montrouge | France

Architects: Arte Charpentier, Paris | France

Fabricator: Smac, SAB & Tim Composites

Facade System: Cassettes

Year of Construction: 2014

Product: ALUCOBOND® White 16

The Evergreen Campus reception pavilion in Montrouge by Arte Charpentier is designed as an open sculpture.

The two-storey building spans 600 m2 and consists of two elements: the “comma”, which protects the staff entrance porticos with its canopy, and the pavilion itself, through which visitors access the site. The pavilion’s glass frontage affords a high level of transparency and offers views of the green environment within the campus.

Open to the city, the building also acts as a filter to guarantee security. The metal shell covering the volume required nine radii of curvature. The frame is entirely metal and clad with ALUCOBOND®. Arte Charpentier Architects and 3A Composites have been awarded the Duo@work prize for outstanding collaboration between architect and industry.

CHALLENGING AND CHAOTIC

Project: Dominion Tower, Moscow | Russia

Architects: Zaha Hadid Architects | Local Architect: AB Elis

Fabricator/Installer: StroyBit

Facade System: Cassettes SZ20

Year of Construction: 2015

Product: ALUCOBOND® spectra – special colour

Photos: Daniel Sumesgutner

Located in Moscow’s Sharikopodshipnikovskaya Street, next to tram and trolleybus stops and near Moscow Metro’s Dubrovka Station, the Dominion Office Building is one of the first new projects to be built for the growing creative and IT sectors in the south-eastern part of the city.

Conceived as a series of vertically stacked plates off-set at each level with connecting curved elements, a central atrium rises through the total height of the building to bring natural light into its centre. On every storey, balconies project into the atrium and correspond to the displacement of the outer envelope. A series of staircases interconnect through this central space. The building achieves a sense of lightness, despite its large size, due to its long ribbon windows and staggered, cantilevered white volumes. “The Dominion Tower is a kind of critique of mass architecture, where each floor is the same as the other,” said Christos Passas, the project head and associate director at Zaha Hadid Architects. “We have tried to break this trend toward standardization, putting into the building’s exterior something more challenging and chaotic. In this case, the selected shape helps to hold a dialogue with the environment.” The façades are covered with a custom ALUCOBOND® spectra colour, which changes colour slightly depending on the natural light.

Project: Fusion Building, Bournemouth University | United Kingdom

Architects: BDP | United Kingdom

Facade System: Cassettes – Special construction

Year of Construction: 2016

Product: ALUCOBOND®white 10

The Fusion building of Bournemouth University has been designed to intensify the exchange between teaching, research and the business world and is the new flagship academic building on the campus

It is built on a concrete frame rising from the ground and a steel frame descending from the roof. The walls inside are plasterboard and thus allow flexibility for future changes. Concrete columns support the structure. The striking exterior design is a pristine interplay of black, white and grey.

White ALUCOBOND® cladding provides fresh modernity alongside the grey zinc. The balconies are arranged in an irregular manner and break up the design of the facade.

Sustainability was an important consideration not only in the design but in the choice of materials as well. Zinc and ALUCOBOND® are eco-friendly materials. The building has achieved a BREEAM excellent status.

Architect: Matern u. Waschle Architekten BDA, Germany

Facade System: Cassettes SZ20

Year of Construction: 2011

Product: ALUCOBOND® spectra Black

The project “Zukunftsmeile Fürstenallee“ created a Science & Development Centre for product and production innovation in Ostwestfalen-Lippe, Germany.

The cubic structure is located near the Heinz Nixdorf Institute, the HNF Museum, and the b.i.b. College of Economics building ensemble. Along with the boulevard, the new building will extend the whole complex towards the south-east. As such, it is the starting point for the future development of the whole project. The building itself is flexible and forward-looking.

There are spaces offering opportunities for exchange, discourse and presentation as well as smaller rooms for concentrated research.

The central lobby links all floors and areas of research. It is the building’s “business card” but serves as an open communication platform for users and visitors as well.

The building envelope is characterised by ribbon windows set between opaque surfaces made of dark iridescent ALUCOBOND®. In order to avoid obtrusive joints, panel lengths were increased to the maximum structurally possible. The soffi ts in the entrance area, the window joints as well as the roof edges are all in the same colour and sit fl ush with the adjacent areas. This lends the outer skin true elegance and fi ts in perfectly with the facade of the neighbouring computer museum with its dark bronze envelope.